I think it was like, 'I don't look like you, Mom. I don't look like you, Dad. Like, what's going on here?' They just kind of told me I was adopted. I was like, 'OK, that's fine with me.'
My mom's a psychologist, and I think that has influenced me on a personal level. Plus, I'm just generally interested in visualization and humanity, social activity and technology, and what happens in aggregate.
My mom tells me the first show we saw was 'The Secret Garden,' but I don't remember that.
My dad is a chemical engineer, and my mom was a teacher. They were pretty serious about education, but I always thought about things a little bit differently.
My mom is proud of me. But she might not be too happy about the hours I keep or how little I eat. I wake up so late that it would be inappropriate to have breakfast. At most, I will have a snack in the day and dinner. I realize that it's not the healthiest way to live, but it's all I really have time for.
My dad and my mom were big Nat King Cole fans, so they had everything he did.
When I'm singing, it's a mixture of my innocence in the projects, my mom and dad. It's all the good and the bad, the laughs and the frowns that I went through and seen other people go through. Then you be trying to write it. Whatever's coming out, you try and make it all cool.
When I'm out there, you just have to react. That's why you work on those throws. When you're in the moment, you can't think to yourself, 'How do I get this to go 47 yards and be 2 yards inside the sideline?'
My mother and my grandmother are pioneers of Mexican cuisine in this country, so I grew up in the kitchen. My mom, Zarela Martinez, was by far my biggest influence and inspiration - and toughest critic.
You have to find it in the moment, and that's one of the challenges of being an actor - especially a film actor - is that you have to maintain these heightened emotions for long periods of time. There's no trick to it. You just have to do.
